New Delhi: Congress is playing "negative communal politics" by attacking Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as it wants to divert the discourse from development, BJP said.

Reacting to Modi's virtual public acknowledgement of becoming prime minister of the country, Congress on Friday took a pot shot at him saying hope that he will not "re-enact" 2002 post-Godhra riots in other parts the country.

BJP said that in an act of desperation the Congress is diverting the discourse from development. "Congress and UPA government in desperation are reacting negatively to what Modi says. Deliberately they want to communalise the issue and want to divert development discourse into a communal discourse," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

He said, "As Congress cannot showcase their development, they are politicising and communalising the issues. This is negative communal politics." Defending Modi, Javadekar said the Gujarat Chief Minister talks about development knowing very well that maintaining law and order is its primary pre-condition.

"Modi was speaking about development and country knows that after 2002 unfortunate riots, Gujarat for the last 11 years has not witnessed any riots because we believe that pre -condition to development is law and order and absence of communal tension and that is what Gujarat and all BJP-ruled states have achieved," Javadekar said.

Meanwhile, in a sharp reaction, Union minister and Congress leader Manish Tewari said he was worried about Modi's intentions of taking over the reins of the nation. "I often worry about the statements of the Gujarat Chief Minister. I hope he doesn't want to do in the rest of India what he did in Gujarat in 2002," he said.

AICC spokesman Rashid Alvi also appeared to compare Modi with 'yamraj', the Lord of Death in Hindu mythology. UPA's key outside ally Samajwadi Party too joined in the attack against the BJP strongman, saying there was "more publicity and less work" done in Gujarat. Another BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said such "intemperate language" from the Congress spokesperson is a diversionary tactic of the ruling party which is facing a tussle within.

"There is an internal struggle going on in the Congress. The dual power centre has come under severe strain with the senior general secretary questioning it for its failure and the spokesperson struggling to justify it," she said. Referring to Rahul Gandhi's speech on Thursday, the BJP leader said the heir apparent failed to convince the citizens of the country as to why "his ideas are not good enough for his own party".

"Failures of the last nine years, series of unending corruption, lack of jobs and fall in agriculture and industrial production are not explained or answered by the Congress. "Therefore, they are desperately diverting attention of the people with their intemperate language and speaking ill of a successful chief minister," Sitharaman said.

She said Congress is a party whose chief had used the "merchant of death" slogan against Modi and has now unleashed its ministers and spokespersons to use the same "denigrative" language in hitting at their enemy. "People of India will teach them their lessons," she said.